I see the last time I posted was April 21st. Since then I have become a married lady named Emily Scott and met the wildlife of Borneo. And in Beeland… the bees have been equally busy.
The day of my wedding, May 10th, had sunny spots but was often overcast and drizzly. I said to Emma, who was one of my bridesmaids, “Well, at least we haven’t missed a good day’s beekeeping.” Little did we know what our bees were plotting! You can read what their plans were in Emma’s post ‘Bees or honey?‘. Long story short, Jonesy and Thomas found queen cells in Chili and Chamomile’s hives and did splits to stop them swarming, turning three colonies into five. A wedding present from the bees!
Me and Drew running inside from the rain
Our photographer did attempt to take some photos of us outside at one point, but rain sent us hurrying back in! Doesn’t Drew look good in his kilt?
Hurrying in from the rain
But you don’t read this blog for wedding photos, you want to read about bees. Well, I did see some bees on honeymoon in Borneo.
A mengaris tree, home to Apis dorsata bees
Please excuse the bad photo, which was taken from a canopy walkway with an iPhone. See the curve hanging from under the lowest branch on the right? It’s an Apis dorsata honeybee comb. I could just about make out the bees by their movements – they were covering the whole comb and their wings seemed to shimmer in waves.
Information on the bees: “This tree in front of you is a 40m tall mengaris (Koompassia excelsa). For a mengaris, it is quite short. Some individuals have been measured at 86m tall, making it one of the tallest tropical tree species! Perhaps mengaris trees are best known as the home of the world’s largest honey bee, the Asian rock bee (Apis dorsata). Their hives are up to 6 feet across and may contain as many as 30,000 bees. One mengaris tree may contain more than 100 nests!”
Mengaris tree footholds
Can you see the bumps up the side of the tree? Our guide Mike said these were caused by people hammering in bamboo footholds to climb up and steal the honey. They must have been brave as that tall smooth trunk is not made for climbing – it’s a long way down. Indeed, I read online that the bees choose the tree as their home because its smooth bark is tough for predators like the sun bear to climb.
During our travels we did see another of these trees which was covered with combs. It was far away, but Drew got a good photo of it:
Apis dorsata combs
Although the combs are easy to spot, individual bees proved hard to come across. The rainforest in Danum Valley had few flowers near the forest floor – I suspect most of the flowers must be higher up near the canopy. We saw plenty of butterflies floating around, but no bees.
So I was very happy to come across this bee whilst staying at Myne Resort, which is located along the Kinabatangan River by the village of Bilit. We went for river cruises to spot the monkeys, birds, orang-utans and monitor lizards that live along the river bank, but one of my favourite creatures spotted was this carpenter bee. Its wings shimmered with blue and green colours. I suspect this piece of wood was its territory, as every so often it would take off and do a short circuit of the surrounding flowers before returning to rest on the wood.
Carpenter bee
If anyone can identify the bee beyond it being a carpenter bee that would be much appreciated! Drew got some fantastic photos of the Bornean wildlife so a separate post showing off his animal photos may follow.
I feel like including a couple more wedding photos, as I can say they’re bee themed. Our wedding cake! Gorgeously decorated by Michelle at Maya Cakes – http://mayacakes.co.uk. I asked her if she could include little bees somehow and she made it so with marzipan and almonds for the wings. Everyone commented on how tasty it was too.
Our sponge, jam and cream wedding cake, decorated with fruit, flowers and marzipan bees. Made by Michelle at Maya Cakes – http://mayacakes.co.uk
Close up of marzipan bees.
Adventuresinbeeland's Blog 
Beautiful bee photos Emily 😉 I’m jealous you got to see a jewelled exotic bee. Wish we could keep those here – imagine what the other beekeepers would make of them.
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The other beekeepers would be jealous I’m sure!
Went to check our colony at Northfields today. Plenty of bees and food but they are low on stores – perplexing. Blackberry brambles are out now so I hope they can build up more stores, otherwise we’ll have to feed them too!
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Congratulations on your wedding! You’re a lovely couple and I wish you many, many years of happiness together. Bees in Borneo! I’m envious. Borneo is in my top three destinations I would like to visit and now knowing there are enormous bees there makes it all the more appealing.
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Thanks very much. As Borneo is one of the top places you’d like to visit I shall have to do a post featuring some of the animal photos Drew took, if you can stand the heat the wildlife is spectacular.
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Congratulations Emily, you looked beautiful despite the rain, and Drew looked good in his kilt too. Borneo bees look fascinating……..and your wedding cake is an exquisite edible ‘garden’!
Nikki
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Thanks 🙂 I was so happy when I saw the magnificent cake.
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Congrats!!!! Beautiful bride, handsome groom, lovely day despite the rain (they say rain on your wedding day gives you luck!), and the cake is gorgeous.
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Cheers! I didn’t mind the rain – it made me feel like I wasn’t missing out on a good day’s beekeeping and also we had an indoor venue.
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Congratulations!!! I love the original cake. And how fantastic to go to Borneo and see the wild bees there.
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Thank you! It was an amazing trip.
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Well done! Sounds like you had an amazing day, and honeymoon. Hope your bees have settled down now!
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Thanks for saving the day and keeping our bees in line!
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Reblogged this on Linda's wildlife garden and commented:
Lovely post and thank you for sharing have a blessed week
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Thank you Linda, a lovely week to you too.
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Your welcome have a blessed day
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Emily, you looked absolutely beautiful, and Andrew looks very fine in the kilt. Congratulations! And thanks for such a newsy, juicy and interesting blog post. Love, love, love the cake and pinterested it!
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Glad you liked it! As you can imagine cake was an essential part of our wedding, we had three my mum had made too.
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You were such a beautiful bride Emily, and Drew a handsome groom. i agree, we don’t see kilts here and he looks wonderful in his. My congrats to the both of you. Love your bee cake too.
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Thank you! Drew attended his best man’s wedding in Ohio a few years ago and was asked by one of the guests if he’d been hired in! Presumably from http://www.rentascotsman.com.
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You make a lovely couple and you were a stunning bride, I like a kilt for the groom but then I am somewhat biased. The bees are so interesting, I wonder if they could be kept in hives? I loved the carpenter to, it might be Xylocopa aestuans. Amelia
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Me too, the kilt is more flamboyant and colourful than a suit.
Our guide told us that some people do keep bees there, and apparently they’re very gentle, so much so that the beekeepers don’t wear any protective clothing. Whether the bees being kept would be the giant Apis dorsata bees, I’m not sure. I found a book online about the honey bees of Borneo, but it’s quite pricey: http://beesfordevelopment.org/shop/product_info.php/products_id/399
Thanks for the carpenter bee info 🙂
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Congratulations! Drew looked great in his skirt! 🙂
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Thank you! It showed off his calf muscles well.
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Lovely pictures! Congratulations, and best wishes for happy lives together.
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Thanks very much Philip 🙂
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Congratulations! Love your post with wedding photos. I included my bees in my wedding too: I put a small jar of their honey at each place setting as the wedding favor. They were a huge hit!
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Great stuff! We had little honey jars as favours too, but unfortunately I had to buy it in as I didn’t get enough honey last year.
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Huge congratulations on your wedding, Emily! I wish you both every happiness for your future life together.
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Thanks very much Anneliese!
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Congratulations on your wedding Emily. Am wishing a happy life together with your hubby. Your posts have been educative to me especially as a biginner in beekeeping here in Kenya. Please keep up the good work. Hope we could see you here sometimes. Happy beekeeping
Sent from my iPad
>
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Lovely to hear from you Henry, didn’t know I had a follower in Kenya! Will let you know if my travels ever take me to Africa. Happy beekeeping to you too.
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Congratulations! And thank you for sharing wedding photos as well as bees-in-Borneo photos. I laughed out loud when I saw you had posted a picture of that wonderful wedding cake — what would an Adventures in Beeland post be without cake? Best wishes to you and your handsome kilted groom!
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He he, but of course there had to be cake!
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Congrats!
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Thanks 🙂
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Many congratulations! Fabulous cake! RH
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Thanks! Michelle did a great job!
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He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fullness of perfection lies in him
Shakespeare, King John
Congratulations! Wishing you much happiness and many bees!
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Lovely quote! Thank you.
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Congrats!!! The cake looks great.
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Congratulations – you look a beautiful couple! And a lovely cake! Hope your married life is (mostly) a bed of heather (better for the bees than roses, and a bit Scottish)…
All the best 🙂
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Congratulations! You look fabulous.
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